Communication FUNdamentals

Jul. 29, 2008

Remember you're posting to the world!

The other day there was a message sent to one of my networking lists that sounded very interesting to me. It was about marketing. I was excited to listen in to the call. The problem? It didn't say what time zone it was! Bummer!! :( When you communicate online you must remember that you are communicating to the world. Not everyone lives in your home town. I run a Yahoo group for Christian homeschoolers with shy, gifted or learning disabled kids. I'm in Southern California. Some of my members are across the country and some are clear across the world! There are members in England, Australia and there was even an American member who was living near Transylvania for a while! If you announce an event, please don't forget to put the time zone. In fact, it's a great idea to put a few of them! Example: "Come join me for my weekly podcast, Grace Talk Soup. Each Thursday morning 8am PST/ 11am EST." Why? Can't someone figure out EST from 8am PST? Sure! But some people don't deal with this all the time and may not know that EST is three hours later than PST. Also if you are going to invite someone to your podcast, why not make it easy for them to figure out when they can attend? In fact, you could do this: "Come join me for my weekly podcast, Grace Talk Soup. Each Thursday morning 8am PST/9am MST/10am CST/11am EST." Sally may know she is in CST but she may not realize that CST is two hours later than PST. Why make it more difficult for Sally to figure that out? While we are on the subject, I don't know how many times I receive a voice mail from someone asking me to call them but not giving me their area code. "I am a homeschooler and wanted to know if you had any information about...Blah Blah Blah. My number is 555-1234." Well, I was in Southern California. Have any idea how many prefixes there are in Southern California alone? How many in California? How many there are in the U.S.??? There are about 27 different area codes in California. Each area code has several prefixes. Wanna drive me nutz? Send me on a mission to call you and give me only 1/3 of your phone number! ROFL The saying goes: "It's a small world". Actually it's a very big and complicated world we live in. It only feels smaller because, through technology, we have the ability to communicate with people from all over the world in an instant. When you are communicating over the internet or even sometimes on the phone, don't forget that you're communicating with the world. That teleconference sounded really interesting to me and could have helped me a great deal with my business. I'll never know cuz I couldn't figure out what time I needed to attend before it was too late. A reminder from your friendly neighborhood Communication Lady! From JoJo's Purple Crayon... Where's FIMM?  Did you find himm this week? Where's FIMM? Come find the only Foot in Mouth Man picture that is different from all the rest. Email what he looks like and where you found himm to fimm@artofeloquence.com and you could win a free Art of Eloquence eProduct of your choice!

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